LOST WORK BY WYSPIAŃSKI RETURNS TO CRACOW

Stanisław Wyspiański "Self-portrait" from 1897 / The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage/ fot. Danuta Matloch

On the 111th anniversary of the death of the eminent Polish painter Stanisław Wyspiański, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage together with the National Museum in Krakow are showcasing two of is unique paintings. The National Museum in Kraków has gathered the largest and most valuable collection of works by Stanisław Wyspiański, one of the most important, original and respected artists from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The exhibition includes about 900 works. However, from January 15th, 2019 the Museum will display two newly acquired paintings by Wyspiański. It will commemorate the 150th anniversary of his birth.

"Self-portrait" from 1897 and "Portrait of Doctor Jan Raczyński" from 1904 will be displayed in an exhibition entitled Wyspiański. Unknown. The paintings were acquired last week thanks to a subsidy from Poland's Culture Ministry. For 110 years no one had the opportunity to see "Self-portrait", only a photograph was publicly available, and the whereabouts of the canvas remained unknown. It turned out that the painting were owned by the descendants of the family that bought it when Wyspiański was still alive. Wyspiański, one of Poland's most famous playwrights, painters and designers, was born in 1869 in Kraków. He died in the same city at the age of 38.

Wyspiański's own portraits were rarely made, created during important moments of his life and were always symbolic. The first self-portraits Wyspiańśki drew in a sketchbook in 1890, during the artist's journey around Europe.

Stanisław Wyspiański was a Polish playwright, painter and poet, as well as interior and furniture designer. He created a series of symbolic, national dramas derived from the artistic philosophy of the Young Poland Movement. Wyspiański was one of the most outstanding and multifaceted artists of his time in Poland under the foreign partitions. Wyspiański is known as the Fourth Polish Bard in addition to the Three Bards: Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki, and Zygmunt Krasiński.

Author: Anna JabłońskaDate: 06.12.2018Source: The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage